I'm a current Jaguar X358 owner, but I have had two other X308's in the past; a 2000 Sovereign and a 2000 Daimler V8. I remember them fondly and I've always fancied another.

Here are a few pictures of my Sovereign (much missed!):

Boy that was a nice car...

Then here are some of my old Daimler too:

Back in November 2010 I part exchanged the Daimler in for a Jaguar Super V8, and while I did love the new Super V8, in some ways it was the stupidest thing I ever did. The Daimler had a little over 60K miles on the clock and I got £2,500 for it. The dealer listed it for £6K the following week and it was gone nearly straight away... I was gutted!

So I am on my 3rd X350 now, and its fair to say I have never really warmed to the newer Jaguar models completely. I've even tried a couple of Mercedes S classes to try and get back that magic of the old Jags. While the Mercedes models do have a better ride quality than the newest range of XJ's, the interiors are so bland and awkward... I found myself shopping for a Jaguar X350 again.... and that's where I've been for the past two years. But never completely satisfied with the sporty, and somehow 'cheap' feel of the X350 ride; which may be in part because of the aluminium body?

I have made project threads for most of my previous cars, so here is one for the new car.... hopefully it will be a successful one!

I have been driving my wife mad for the last few years going on about getting a Daimler Super V8 as a weekend car. But the problem is I've never really had the space, or the money. But we sorted out our garden the year before last, and there is now room for 3 cars. I recently saw an advert on a forum for an old tired but useable 'crash damaged' Daimler Super V8... I wondered if it might be an affordable way for me to get 'back in the game'.

So timing is everything, and we were just in the process of buying my wife a tidy, used Range Rover Sport, to replace her XF. So while she was all giddy and excited about her new tractor, I slipped in the idea of a 'cheap' project car I had seen, and then stood back and awaited the reaction. To be honest, she is probably that fed up of me banging on about getting a Daimler - I am surprised she did not buy the thing for me. She was very supportive and we arranged a trip to see the car.

So on the Friday just gone, we took a 4 hour car journey to Salisbury to meet the owner Peter, and see the car. We have a 11 week old baby son which made things more complicated; and we were also picking up Lindsey's Range Rover from Basingstoke, so I had to bring another driver to help get everything home.

I have to say the car was in a much worse state than I had hoped. The rear bumper needs replacing, there is overspray everywhere, and DIY spray work. But I was already smitten, and despite the sensible part of me saying it would be more cost effective to buy a ready restored one, I was negotiating a deal a short while later. After I had done the deal, we stopped around the corner to fill the Daimler with fuel for the journey home. 'It feels a bit floaty' Billy said to me, as though it was a bad thing. I simply replied, 'Billy, I am so glad to hear you say that, because, that is exactly what I was hoping'. Goodbye go-cart ride quality of the X350... and hello to the Rolls Royce ride of an old Daimler!

The following morning I was greeted by the sight of my wife's Range Rover, my daily driver X358 and the new Daimler:

The Daimler actually looks pretty good from a glance, and Billy told me he was harassed by admirers when he stopped on the journey back. But while it seems mechanically really good, that hides a multitude of cosmetic sins... all will be revealed when I get time to put up the hundreds of pictures I have taken. But for now... here is my crash damaged Daimler... through rose tinted glasses:

Thanks guys. Yes it sure is an unlikely super-saloon. The Daimler has a very regal look to it, but no-one would expect it to have 370bhp on tap.

The car is the long wheelbase, with the individual electric rear seats too.

Having an 11 week old baby will probably stop me showering the Daimler with the time I'd like; not to mention my beautiful wife, who I also cannot neglect! But over the coming months I am hoping I can start to improve the car.

OK so first things first, the accident damage, and the rest of the body. So this is the offending main damage:

The chap I purchased the car from, Peter, told me that it had been damaged like this when he bought it, and that he had intended to restore it. But he had not got around to it, and was now moving away with no place to store the car. So this means that the damage must have been like this for some time. This explains the rust around the edges of the damage. The rear bumper chrome was also held on with duct tape on the passenger side.

When I went to look at the car, I took a family friend who knows a bit about car body repairs with me. He advised that a new rear bumper was needed as the existing one was badly cracked. He said the wing damage might push out, but that the edge around the rear light would be difficult to get right. Therefore it might also need a new rear wing.

Oddly the wing also had signs of a previous repair!

One of the most bizarre things, was that both the front and rear bumpers have had mastic around them where they meet the body, and the mastic has been painted too.

Not sure if you can see it here?...:

The rear passenger arch near the damage shows signs of DIY repairs and that dreaded "Car cancer" bubbling through...

There are more signs of DIY paintwork in between the two passenger side doors.

There is also an old DIY repair at the front passenger arch. This used to be a weak-point on XJ40 models and the sill used to bow out from the rust beneath, I have a feeling this is mostly filler on this car....

There are some strange insignia below the indicator repeaters. I thought these looked rather nice in the photographs I had been sent. But up close they did not look quite so professional. However I think I'll see if I can add my own motive here in the future; based on this same design.

The front bumper has signs of a re-spray in some places, although it looks like it might just have been patched to cover scuffs.

Rust at the front of the drivers front wheel arch:

...and more rust, and DIY repairs at the back of the same arch... just like the other side...

But to my amazement, the middle section looks quite tidy:

That is, until you get to the drivers side rear arch.

Then just to round the car off, the rear drivers side of the rear bumper has this DIY repair and paint. So I definitely think a new bumper will be easiest.

The top half of the car is pretty good. No rust around the fuel cap, in fact it looks spotless. The same around all the windows - it looks pretty perfect. The roof looks good too. The only other things to mention is this dull patch where there has obviously been another DIY repair:

So that's the bodywork covered. It does not end there - plenty more to add. But I shall get to the rest of the car in another post.

Not sure how much of the previous owner history you can ascertain but I wouldn’t be surprise if it had been owned by a retired gentleman from new/near new and then got bumped n bashed with driver failing eyesight/ability due to the size of the car. Just hope there’s not too many horrors to be revealed down the passenger side.

At least you have lots of ownership knowledge on the breed, and no doubt have lots of contacts already to help rectify some of the issues and scars

I can imagine you are fairly close Percy. The history I know is as follows:

The car was purchased brand new in Birmingham, by a Mr Harding. I am not definite, but I think he kept the car for 6 years.

The car then travelled to south Wales, where is was purchased by a Mr Barlow. He seemed to carry on the main dealer history and appears to have taken the car to the dealer for all sorts of things. There seems no way to be able to tell, but I think he then sold the car around 2013... but its hard to tell. I have written to Mr Barlow, and I am hoping that (if he is still alive?) he might tell me something about when he sold the car and what happened. He last serviced the car at a main dealer in 2009, yet I have receipts with his name and address dating from 2013.

There then seems to be another 3rd mystery owner, there is no trace of them in the history and they must have owned the car for 4/5 years. There is no sign of the car being serviced in that time and the car barely seems to have moved. Less that 20K miles was added in those 4 or 5 years.

The 4th owner was Peter, who I bought the car from. He was disabled and retired. I did not see a dog when I viewed the car, but I am sure he mentioned that he had taken his dog in the car a couple of times. He said something about wanting an estate car as it would be more practical, and I suggested an X-type (as he loves Jags). He said he had not long bought the car and had intended to restore it. He was told by the previous owner, that another car hit the rear side, and it was written off by the insurance company. I had the car HPI checked out of curiosity and it is recorded as a non-structural (cosmetic only) write off. I was surprised such minor damage wrote the car off, until I saw the rest of the car and realised the value would have been fairly small; even without the accident damage, due to the state of the rest of the car.

Peter has actually helped me out quite considerably, as he has had front lower suspension arms replaced, a new headlamp motor and anti-roll bar bushes - which were needed to put it through the MOT. As a result I at least have a car I can drive to get quotes etc.